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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  19. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. staff — employees
  3. march — the month
  4. staff — a stick
  5. mine — for digging
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. clip — for paper
  8. last — to go on
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. last — finally
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. march — the month
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. firm — steady
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. clip — a video
  18. firm — decided
  19. staff — employees
  20. march — music
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. firm — a company
  23. bark — to shout
  24. clip — to cut

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com